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Ethio Telecom has presented the second stage of its Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028 strategy alongside the operator's 2026/27 annual business plan. CEO Frehiwot Tamru said the company will place customer service and human-centred digital services at the core of year two and accelerate expansion into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech and digital platforms. The 2026/27 plan therefore frames the next phase of digital transformation as one driven by customer value and improved service quality under the Next Horizon 2028 programme.
Key takeaways
- Plan and timing: Ethio Telecom launched its 2026/27 annual business plan as the second stage of Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028.
- Leadership: CEO Frehiwot Tamru said the second year will prioritise customer service and human-centred digital services.
- Technology focus: The operator will accelerate expansion into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech and digital platforms.
Table of contents
What the 2026/27 plan reorders inside Next Horizon 2028
Ethio Telecom’s 2026/27 business plan shifts the strategy’s emphasis from infrastructure build-out to customer-facing services. The operator has framed year two of Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028 around maximising customer value and improving service quality rather than announcing new network milestones.
That repositioning is explicit in CEO Frehiwot Tamru’s briefing: she put customer service and human-centred digital services at the core of the plan. By naming those priorities the company signals the kinds of programmes it will resource this year — training and process changes for care teams, product design that starts with customer needs, and metrics tied to service quality.
Where Ethio Telecom will expand: the technology roster
The 2026/27 plan commits Ethio Telecom to accelerate work on several digital domains. The operator will move more deliberately into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech and digital platforms, indicating a push beyond connectivity into platform services and software-driven revenue.
That mix combines back-end capacity (cloud), data-driven tooling (artificial intelligence) and customer-facing products (fintech and platforms). Putting those four areas together suggests Ethio Telecom intends to bundle services that rely on both infrastructure and application-layer capabilities, and to monetise digital services as part of Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028.
Operational choices and the implied delivery tests
Shifting a national operator’s focus to customer value creates operational demands. Ethio Telecom must translate the prioritisation of customer service into measurable changes in complaint handling, network experience, billing and digital interfaces; those execution tasks are the immediate test of the 2026/27 plan.
Equally, expanding into artificial intelligence and cloud will require new skills, partnerships and procurement decisions. The company has named the strategic end-state — Next Horizon 2028 — and the 2026/27 plan sets the short-term milestones, but the plan’s success depends on implementation across people, processes and technology.
Outlook: the case for and against the 2026/27 shift
The case for
- Prioritising customer service and human-centred digital services could raise average revenue per user if it increases retention and uptake of digital products.
- A concerted push into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech and digital platforms positions Ethio Telecom to capture platform and enterprise revenue beyond connectivity under Next Horizon 2028.
The case against
- Execution risk is material: converting a strategy focused on service quality into measurable improvements requires process change, staff training and systems updates within the 2026/27 timeframe.
- Expanding into multiple complex domains at once could dilute focus and delay measurable gains in customer experience and revenue.
What to be careful about
- Failure to deliver measurable improvements in customer service could undermine the strategy’s stated goal of maximising customer value.
- Scaling human-centred digital services alongside expansions into AI and cloud may strain existing workforce skills and procurement cycles.
- Delivering fintech and platform services requires regulatory and compliance work that the plan does not detail in the 2026/27 summary.
The bottom line
Ethio Telecom’s 2026/27 business plan represents a deliberate reweighting of the Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028 strategy toward customers and digital services. CEO Frehiwot Tamru has signalled the operator will make customer service and human-centred digital services central to year two while pushing into artificial intelligence, cloud, fintech and digital platforms. The plan sets a clear strategic direction; the near-term question is execution — converting those priorities into measurable service-quality gains and viable platform products during 2026/27.
What to watch
- watch for Ethio Telecom to publish detailed KPIs and targets tied to the 2026/27 business plan; no date has been set.
- watch for announcements of specific partnerships or vendors for artificial intelligence, cloud or fintech projects; no date has been set.
- watch for service-quality metrics or customer-satisfaction scores tied to the second year of Next Horizon 2028; no date has been set.
Frequently asked questions
What is Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028?
Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028 is Ethio Telecom’s multi-year strategy; the company is now in the second year and has framed its 2026/27 business plan as the stage that prioritises customer service and human-centred digital services.
Who announced the 2026/27 plan?
CEO Frehiwot Tamru introduced the 2026/27 annual business plan and said the next phase centres on maximising customer value and improving service quality.
Which technology areas will Ethio Telecom expand into under the plan?
The company will accelerate expansion into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech and digital platforms as part of the 2026/27 roadmap within Next Horizon 2028.
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